A full bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Friday directed the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to disclose information regarding defaulter candidates on its website by April 17, besides informing the commission in this regard. The bench also issued notice to Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited, PTCL, electricity distribution companies, and Wasa to make their representatives appear before the court on the next date of hearing to inform about their defaulters.
The bench also directed the ECP to inform the court on next date of hearing about defaulters of co-operative societies or co-operative bodies. The bench further directed the FBR to inform the ECP about the status of 1010 candidates matters of whose candidature is pending before the tribunals of the LHC by next date of hearing. The bench passed this order after FBR's director intelligence Tanveer Akhtar told to the court that they had not informed the ECP about the defaulter candidates as they did not ask about it. He said the ECP only asked about NTN of the candidates and their tax returns of previous three years.
To a question raised by the bench, Tanveer Akhtar replied that the FBR did not have access to the data of bank account holders as banks are not willing to share it with them. He said only the SBP had access to these accounts. He said the ECP had sent them cases of 24,266 candidates among which 10,794 had no NTN. He said they scrutinised these cases within a week.
State Bank of Pakistan's (SBP) Senior Joint Director Ali Jafar told the court that they had given a list of defaulter candidates to the ECP which was available on its website. He said over 500 candidates or their family members were bank defaulters. The legal adviser of National Accountability Bureau (NAB) informed to the court that ECP had referred cases of 23,599 candidates for scrutiny.
During the hearing, the bench took serious notice of misreporting of the previous court proceedings by a section of press and said the court would take notice of any misreporting or wrong reporting. Justice Ahsan a member of the bench remarked that judiciary fully supported the democratic process and efforts of ECP. The election process would not be stopped or interrupted under any circumstances, he said. He maintained that the judiciary was fully supporting the democratic process and democracy. He clarified that the Election Commission of Pakistan was making all possible effort to hold fair, free and transparent elections on time despite time constraints and logistical issues. "Such efforts must be appreciated and supported."
He remarked that there was no question of stopping polls or interrupting the process by the courts for any reason. He directed the SBP, FBR, NAB and other government agencies to provide full support, assistance and co-operation to the Election Commission of Pakistan. The bench continued the hearing of various petitions seeking implementation of Article 62 and 63 of the Constitution.